According to reports, Meta, the parent company of Facebook’s social platform, is now preparing to slow down the pace of external recruitment, mainly because it may usher in the lowest revenue growth in history and is currently facing various external business challenges, such as Apple’s new privacy policy.
A spokesman for Meta said that the company will regularly adjust its talent recruitment plan based on business development needs and quarterly spending expectations, and the company’s current spending growth has slowed. The spokesperson stressed that the company will continue to grow its workforce in the long run.
Last week, Meta released its first-quarter earnings report. For the current second quarter, the company forecasts a year-over-year decline in operating income. CFO David Wehner pointed to the many problems facing the company, saying that spending this year could range from $87 billion to $92 billion, down from a previous forecast of $90 billion to $95 billion.
In recent weeks, Meta has delayed recruiting entry-level engineering positions and will halt or hold back most mid-level or senior-level positions in the future, according to a person familiar with the hiring plan. In addition, recruitment plans for certain vacancies have also been suspended.
The difficulties faced by Meta began last year, with some users gradually abandoning Meta’s social software. In February, the company said that in the fourth quarter of last year, the number of daily active users fell for the first time sequentially, but rebounded in the first quarter of this year.
Meta’s online advertising business will also face a hit.
At last week’s earnings analyst meeting, Wehner said that the company’s revenue in Russia has fallen, and ad demand in Europe and outside regions has fallen, so Meta ad growth has experienced a further decline.
Wehner also told investors that Apple’s privacy acquisition reform in iOS devices last year (cross-App acquisition of personal privacy requires user permission) will affect the growth rate of the Meta business. Earlier, Meta predicted that Apple’s move would reduce operating income by $10 billion in 2022.